Women's Hoops Aims For First Against UW-Parkside

Feb. 5, 2010

It is a battle for first place in the GLVC North when the Flyers (13-9, 9-4 GLVC) host UW-Parkside (18-4, 10-3 GLVC) in a rare Saturday evening tip-off of 5:30 p.m.

IN THE DANCE: The Flyers' victory over St. Joseph's on Thursday clinched Lewis' sixth trip to the GLVC Tournament in seven seasons.

SERIES HISTORY: Lewis leads the all-time series 31-14 however the Rangers have taken three of the last four contests including both last season. Both contests last year were close with UW-Parkside winning 56-51 in Romeoville on Jan. 17 and 57-56 on Feb. 26 at UW-Parkside. In the contest on Feb. 26 elements were there for a Flyers' road conference victory. Lewis limited the Rangers to fewer than 60 points and their leading scorer Amanda Gibson had just four. Jenny Turpel scored a game-high 23 points with seven boards and four blocks. But a cold start, failing to score in the game's first five minutes, and being out rebounded 40-27 would do in the Flyers.

RECAP OF TURPEL'S BIG NIGHT: Jenny Turpel set career-highs with 37 points, 17 rebounds and 16 field goals on Thursday against St. Joseph's. Her 37 points tied Indianapolis' Samantha Meissel (Dec. 15 vs. Florida Tech) for most individual points by a GLVC player this year. Turpel's 17 rebounds were the second best in the conference this season as UW-Parkside's Brittany Hogan had 21 (Dec. 12 vs. Robert Morris). Both Meissel and Hogan's totals were against non-conference schools meaning Turpel's stats are the best in a conference game this year. For good measure Turpel also tied a career-high with four blocks against St. Joseph's.

IT'S SHAW GOOD: Over the last five games sophomore Lory Shaw is averaging 8.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in 15.2 minutes off the bench.

OVER THE LAST NINE GAMES: Lewis is 7-2 over their last nine games. In this span the Flyers are averaging 70.8 points per game and giving up just 60.1 per game on 40.3 percent opponents' shooting. The Flyers hold a +3.9 rebounding margin during this span, including a 126-101 edge on the offensive glass.

ONE FOR FOUR: After winning three consecutive games three other times this season, Lewis will look for their first four-game win streak of the season on Saturday against UW-Parkside.

MURDOCK FILLS UP THE STAT SHEET: Freshman Labrenthia Murdock was inserted into the starting lineup for the Flyers road contest at Bellarmine on Jan. 4. Since then she's had several impressive individual performances, including 17 points at Indianapolis, eight assists at Drury, six steals against Kentucky Wesleyan, four steals vs. St. Joseph's and four games of three blocks.

MORE ON MURDOCK'S BLOCKS: Labrenthia Murdock has 20 blocks on the season including a block in eight of the last nine games. She's recorded three blocks against Illinois-Springfield (Jan. 9), Indianapolis (Jan. 16), Kentucky Wesleyan (Jan. 28) and Southern Indiana (Jan. 30). Her flurry of blocks has tied for 10th in the GLVC in blocks with 0.91 per game.

HOME SWEET HOME: Dating back to last season the Flyers have won 10 consecutive GLVC games at Neil Carey Arena. Lewis' last loss at home in a GLVC game was on Jan. 29, 2009 against Northern Kentucky.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE VISION: Jenny Turpel has a GLVC-best nine double-doubles this year. Quincy's Courtney Shuman and Drury's Melanie Oliver are second with seven.

1,000 FOR DIANIS: During Lewis' game against Kentucky Wesleyan on Thursday, Jan. 28 senior Kelly Dianis scored her 1,000th career point. Her 1,021 career points rank 18th all-time in Lewis history.

1,000 FOR JT: During the Flyers' contest at Drury on Jan. 23 Jenny Turpel moved into 10th all-time in career points by passing Brenda Wegrzyn's (1991-95) 1,127 career points. Currently Turpel has 1,201 career points. She is 50 points behind ninth place Rosemary Turner's 1,261 points from 1983-87.

JT ON THE BOARDS: Jenny Turpel has increased her rebounds per game from 4.6 as a freshman to 6.9 last season and 8.3 this year, fourth in the conference. Additionally her 9.0 boards per game in conference play ranks first in the GLVC. Turpel's 503 career rebounds rank 14th in Lewis history. She needs 70 more to crack the top 10.

FROM WAY DOWNTOWN: Lewis is averaging 7.00 treys per game, second best in the GLVC. Kelly Dianis' 2.14 3-pointers per game ranks fifth in the GLVC.

THREE CHEERS: Kelly Dianis passed Bonnie Richrath (1990-94) to become second all-time in career 3-pointers on Dec. 28 at Upper Iowa. She topped Richrath's 173. Dianis stands at 200 for her career. Lewis' all-time leader is Carey Jewell (1996-00). Jewell connected on 271 3-pointers during her career.

150 THREES: Lewis has made a 3-pointer in 150 consecutive games. The last time they failed to connect on a 3-pointer was Jan. 27, 2005 against Indianapolis.

ON THE OFFENSIVE GLASS: Lewis has recorded more offensive rebounds than their opponent in seven consecutive games. The Flyers are averaging 13.73 offensive rebounds per game, second in the conference.

THE ROMEOVILLE 500: Junior Kelly Monaco (512) scored her 500th career point vs. St. Joseph's on Thursday. Kady Currin (465) and Devon Carbaugh (434) are nearing 500 career points also.